AbstractDuring the Phanerozoic, three steps of increasing diversity each had a unique Evolutionary Fauna (EF). During each EF, there were geologically long intervals of community stasis referred to as Ecological Evolutionary Units (EEUs). These intervals were characterized by communities composed of incumbent faunas that dominated particular habitats. Niches that were already occupied by incumbents were seldom invaded by new taxa, and the resilience of the incumbents to new competitors resulted in the long interval stasis.Most EEUs were terminated by extinction events that were caused by severe disruptions of the physical environment such as glaciations and extraterrestrial impacts. During mass extinctions many niches were vacated when incumbents were eliminated. Mass extinctions were followed by recovery intervals lasting on the order of 5 million years during which many surviving clades evolved adaptations which allowed them to move into vacated niches. New incumbents were established during these recovery intervals, and the next EEU began. In many ways, the recovery intervals resemble times when organisms invaded previously unoccupied ecospace, such as the emergence of life on land or the progressive filling of previously unoccupied habitats such as deep‐burrowing and high epifaunal tiers that were colonized during the Palaeozoic.The recognition of long intervals of ecological stasis and the importance of physical disruptions in clearing incumbents is forcing revision of the traditional evolutionary viewpoint. The idea that most evolutionary change was accomplished very gradually by competition between organisms and by becoming better adapted to a relatively stable environment is being replaced by a recognition that major morphological and synecological changes tend to occur very rapidly and at times when there are few established competitors. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.